Hawks 100, Wizards 89 or Where if Arenas turns the ball over 7 times, opponents win easily

Shout out to the NBA schedule makers for giving the Hawks two very winnable games before sending them out West to play the Lakers, Blazers, and Kings.
Thank goodness the Hawks held up their end of the bargain and took care of business. The Wizards are not at full strength, but no one outside of D.C. is going to shed any tears for them. Let's take a look at the G,B and U from tonight's game.

The Good: Josh Smith. He was all over the Highlight Factory tonight despite picking up 3 fouls early on. The fact that he was allowed to pick up #3 in the first half shows some growth by Mike Woodson. Kudos. Back to Josh, he had 20 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and his 900th and 901st career blocks tonight. He's the youngest player in NBA history to reach 900 blocks. Honorable mention: Jamal Crawford (16 points) Al Horford (10 points, 12 rebounds, 5 blocks)

The Bad: Caron Butler's knee: He left the game in the second quarter with a bruised left knee and he didn't return. Sucks for the Wizards, but Hawks fans will take it. Honorable mention: Deshawn Stephenson's face.

The Ugly: Gilbert Arenas' 7 turnovers. I wouldn't say he was careless so much as he was clumsy. The Wizards will not win games when their best player is struggling with the little things like taking care of the ball. Although he accounted for half of the team's 14 turnovers, he did end up with 23 points and he was on fire a little bit in the 4th quarter. Honorable mention: Mike Miller's ponytail. I mean, it's just a pony tail, but it's two toned and besides that, he's not the most masculine looking dude you're ever going to see so the kids are probably confused. It's just a bad look at this point and it's not going to get any better. Either cut it, dye it all one color, or join the Mystics.

Up next, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Visit these other sites for more thorough Hawks analysis: Peachtreehoops, Hoopinion, Hawkstr8talk, Human Highlight Blog

Hawks 120, Pacers 109 or Where defense is acceptable, but not mandatory.

Tonight was the first game for the Atlanta Hawks as well as the first official blog date night for myself and Larry from Hawkstr8talk. Larry was good company and I learned that he is a pretty popular dude around Philips Arena. I actually kinda already knew that, but whatever. It was good to watch the game with a fellow die hard Hawks fan/fellow blogger. He was not around for the Kiss Cam due to long lines at the bar so we missed our chance for 5 seconds of fame. Oh well, maybe we'll get em next time.
When we took our halftime stroll we ran into Hoopinion's very own Bret. He was on press row sitting beside the only man who understands PER, John Hollinger.

As for the game, the Hawks won a hard fought game against the Pacers who at one point were literally shooting over 70%. In the Hawks defense, (which is the only defense offered tonight that's worth mentioning)they did contest some of those shots. The Pacers were just on fire early. Were it not for the turnovers they could have won this game.

Pretty much every other Hawks blogger has some sort of format they follow for their game recaps. I suppose I should have one too. I'm going to keep it simple and go with, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Good: Al Horford. The Boss had 24 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal. This is the Al Horford I fantasize about. Give him the damn ball and let him realize my dream for him to become the next Tim Duncan. That's right, I aim high. Honorable mention, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith and Jeff Teague. (His first NBA points came on a dunk)

The Bad: TJ Ford. He was 1-9 from the field and he only had 3 points. There were other players who struggled, but he was the worst of the bunch considering he played over 23 minutes. Honorable mention, Solomon Jones who tried to use every foul he had in the first half.

The Ugly: The Hawks Defense. Indiana shot 63% from the field in the first half. That's unacceptable especially since Mike Woodson is supposed to be a defensive minded coach. Again, some of the shots were contested, but a large majority of them were good clean looks. Get it together.

Up next, Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards.

Hawks 2009-2010 Season Preview

So, the season is upon us and I've literally been on a blogging hiatus for over a month. I would offer you some excuses about how I've been busy or blah, blah, blah, but the reality of the situation is I need a damn off-season too! And, I'm slightly lazy. It's cool though because the other Hawks bloggers held it down, especially Drew over at Peachtreehoops. He was up on all of the Hawks news, very impressive.

Peachtreehoops, Hoopinion, Hawkstr8talk and The Human Highlight Blog have all done wonderful season previews. They've covered every aspect of the team from the starters to the bench to the coach. If you follow my blog you know there's just no way in hell I'm going to do any of that.

I honestly don't know what to expect from this team.

Everyone is so sure that Joe Johnson playing for a contract can only mean good things for the Hawks. I don't really see it that way. Quite frankly, I'm worried.
Joe already tries to do way too much. This season Joe will try to do even more. He's got to prove that he's worth more than $60 million over 4 years, which is debatable.
The one player in recent history who did not defer to Joe Johnson is no longer here. Flip, (yes I'm talking about Flip Murray) signed with the Bobcats since the Hawks let him go in favor of Jamal Crawford. He was streaky and on any given night he scared the hell out of me, but he was at least proactive about getting his shot. This team needed that because the rest of the guys are far too content with just standing around watching Joe dribble 17 seconds off the shot clock only to end up with a contested jumper. Not that all of Joe's shots are of that nature, but as I pointed out last season, Joe takes bad shots often enough that its noticeable. There was a time when a Joe Johnson contested fade away jumper was a better option than a wide open jumper by anyone else. That is no longer the case because Joe's teammates are better, he just needs to trust them. Will he sacrifice his stats for the good of the team this season? Not in a contract year.......
Joe has never been described as a "selfish player", but I'm willing to bet he will display a lot of "selfish player" tendencies this season. I guess we'll have to wait and see what position that leaves the team in when it's all said and done.

This is also a make or break season for Mike Woodson. He's gotta prove that he's capable of producing more than one winning season. Is this a championship contending team? I'm leaning towards no, hoping for yes, but leaning towards no. Having acknowledged the fact that playing in June is an -unrealistic- lofty goal, Mike Woodson will not be excused if this team gets swept in the second round again. At least I hope he won't. I admire the Spirit for honoring his contract and etc., but honestly, they already know what kind of coach Woody is. If Rick Sund can acknowledge the ceiling for all of the players, then he should also acknowledge the ceiling for Woody. He's reached it and he is not going to get any better, mainly because he's not going to do anything differently.
Every off-season he makes declarations about getting this player more minutes, or that player more touches and once the season begins he makes no noticeable effort to do any of the things he tells Sekou he's going to do. At some point they just have to accept who he is and make a decision as to whether or not that's good enough for them.
This preview is limited to Joe and Mike because they are the two most important people involved with this team this season. Joe is the Hawks best player and Woody is the man pulling the strings. Their effectiveness is directly related to the team's success.
It's not that Mike, Josh, Al, Za Za, Jamal, Jeff and Marvin aren't important, but they aren't as important as the guy who dominates the ball or the man whose offense allows him to do so.
I normally don't predict a win total and I'm not going to start now.

* Bonus*
I will routinely be having Blog dates with Larry from hawkstr8talk.com this season. He has accused me of being unreliable with my blog, but rest assured I will post about any Blog date games!

Say It Ain't So Joe

So last night Joe Johnson decided to try his luck with ustream. This horrified me in ways I can't even describe. We've all witnessed first hand the kind of things you can learn about a basketball player when he sits in front of a camera all day and some of it ain't pretty.
At first its all fun and games, but before you know it he's sitting there yelling at the haters on the computer; then the next thing you know he's eating Vaseline.
Let me intervene before Joe has some sort of life changing episode.

Joe The Basketball Player, you are not that interesting and that is the most interesting thing about you.
Yeah we Bloggers may make fun of you from time to time for being overall emotionless, but that's who you are. Don't try to change now.
So what if we can count the number of times you've smiled during the game without using all of our fingers and toes. Its what we've come to expect. Don't change now.
I don't know who peer pressured you into doing the live stream, but don't let this turn into a really bad episode of The After School Program.
I'm begging you, please quit while you're ahead.
I honestly don't want to know what you do off the court. I rather enjoy the completely professional business relationship we've had over the last 4 years. I know we're in the information age and there's unlimited access, but there doesn't have to be, really. One of the most endearing things about you is that all of the stories surrounding you are basketball related. We don't know what you do with your free time and for the most part we don't really care. Trying to make us care is the worst thing you could do.
You know how the game is played. If you let them (media, fans) in once then all of a sudden they feel like it's their God given right to know everything about you. Do you really want the paparazzi rifling through your trash?
Okay, so you're not Brittany Spears and they probably wouldn't bother, but you get my point.
Joe The Basketball Player does not need to act like an attention starved whore. Leave that to Stephon Marbury.

The Answer To A Boring Off-Season

I will keep this relatively short and sweet.

I want the Atlanta Hawks to sign Allen Iverson.

He needs a team. He has a home in Atlanta. An Iverson Hawks jersey would be bananas!! He'd help with ticket sales. And last but not least.... He's still better than every other guard on the Hawks roster. He just is.

People would have you believe that last year was a sign of him slowing down and not having "it" anymore. I couldn't disagree more. That Pistons team never even gave it a chance to work out with AI. Rip, Tae and Rasheed were so devastated when Chauncey got traded they didn't even bother to try afterwards. There was a whole lot of standing around and pouting and it was never going to work because the remaining Pistons were just as vigilant as Chauncey in their efforts to show Dumars he shouldn't have traded him. They never embraced AI so it was doomed from the beginning.
AI is not completely blameless. He didn't respond well to coming off the bench. Yes he could have handled it better, but I certainly understand why he felt the way he felt. Well I understand it as best as someone who hasn't talked to him can understand it.
Anyway, if the Hawks can sign AI for around the MLE then they should do it. Why not? We all know there's no way in hell Woody is going to play Teague so they can bring AI in and since he has this thing about coming off the bench, they can let him start and bring Bibby off the bench.
They need to do this. Allen Iverson has overcome throughout his entire career and now he's in a situation where much like when he was a rookie everyone is doubting him. He can be very dangerous and at the very least it would be interesting to watch. Pretty much everything involving the Atlanta Hawks this off-season has been less than exciting. I'm actually bored with the fact that we are bringing back the same team. The same team to be coached by a man who doesn't have a guaranteed contract after this season.
It's just disheartening that other teams are genuinely making moves that they think will make them better, meanwhile the Hawks are making lateral moves. I have nothing against Mike or Za Za or Marvin, but we needed to do more and we didn't. They've now proven to me beyond a shadow of doubt that they are not trying to win a championship or even compete for one. They want to be just good enough. That should not be good enough for fans. It's not good enough for me.
Do I think Allen Iverson is The Answer? No I don't. As a fan I'd have every hope that he would be, but as a realist I know he probably isn't. I want Iverson here because of all the reasons I listed way back in the beginning of this relatively short post. If those reasons aren't good enough, the last thing I can offer you is, he's Allen f*cking Iverson. That's reason enough for me.
Tell me why you're for or against it.

What am I supposed to wipe my feet on now?

Every single time I walk up to my condo door I become reinfuriated. (don't know or care if that's a real word)
About a week and a half ago someone had the audacity to steal my Atlanta Hawks welcome mat. When I came home that night I immediately noticed it was missing because it's always the first thing I notice when I walk through the breeze way.
Any other person would probably have gotten over this egregious act of wrong doing, but as you all know I am not normal.
The very next day I posted a sign near the mailboxes that read:

TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN:

SOMEONE STOLE MY ATLANTA HAWKS WELCOME MAT AND I WANT IT BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I DON’T KNOW WHAT KIND OF RIFF RAFF SOMEONE HAS BEEN LETTING INTO THIS COMPLEX, BUT I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW WOULD RETURN MY MAT EXACTLY WHERE YOU FOUND IT!
SINCERELY,
APT. 214

Needless to say I have not gotten any responses, although I did hear a young lady telling one of her friends about it as she walked through the breezeway. Whatever.

Back to why I just can't let it go. I bought that mat over 2 years ago at the Team Gear store in Philips Arena. It didn't cost an obscene amount of money, probably around $20. I'm not even sure if they still have it and it shouldn't matter if they do because I already bought one. I can't stress that enough. I already bought one!!!! I say that because a couple of people told me "just buy another one". My response was and will continue to be that I shouldn't have to buy another one because I bought that one. It was mine. No matter what you think about the Hawks or some silly little insignificant object such as a welcome mat, the fact remains that it was mine, I bought it and some asshole stole it.
That welcome mat (yes that one specifically) pretty much represented a lot of my personality. When people would come visit all I would say is "it's the first breeze way and you'll know which one is mine". That may not seem like a big deal to you, but this isn't about you so whatever. No one ever knocked on the wrong door or was even slightly confused about which condo was mine. Those who know me (which is pretty much a prerequisite if you're coming to my house) knew exactly how to find me. Now, I have to start giving specific directions and or a door number. So not the kind of life I'm trying to lead.
Is that welcome mat the only piece of Hawks paraphernalia I own? Of course not. I have game worn jersey's and a Hawks throw and several autographed items, but that's beside the point. That welcome mat was just so me. I'm not the type of girl to have some boring ass straw welcome mat with a plant on it or something as equally blah as that. It's just not who I am. I'm the girl whose friends know when the Hawks are playing on a Friday night she's not leaving the house until the game is over. I'm the girl who is actually genuinely concerned about the fact that Mike Woodson will be coaching next season without a contract. I'm the girl who flew to Miami and watched the Hawks get a good old fashioned ass whipping in Game 3 of the playoffs last year on my own dime at the spur of the moment. I'm the girl who has an autographed basketball from the 13 win team and I treat it like it's autographed by the 92 Chicago Bulls. I'm the girl who had an Atlanta Hawks welcome mat. The fact that I have to say had as opposed to have still doesn't sit well with me. Oh well, I guess........

More Questions Than Answers

Now that the draft is over as is the tenure of one Mr. Acie Law IV in Atlanta, it's time to look at the team and assess what kind of off season they've had thus far.

1. They did not extend nor did they fire Mike Woodson. Rick Sund and the gang are content with letting Woody coach this season with no contract. They see it as honoring his contract and giving him a chance to prove his worth. I see it as a disaster waiting to happen. MAKE A DECISION! It is not a good idea to go into this season letting Mike Woodson coach a team that he has already proven he cannot get maximum effort out of night after night without a contract. There are certain players on the team who shall remain nameless (everyone not named Joe Johnson) who have limited respect for Woody. Do we really want to see what their reaction is when there's no guarantee he'll be back next season? Actually, for comical purposes I do want to see it.

2. They traded Acie Law and Craig Claxton's expiring contract for Jamal Crawford. I have absolutely nothing against Jamal Crawford. I can't stress that enough. He's fun to watch and you just know he's going to have a 50 point game or two throughout the season. However, he's a streaky volume shooter who is not a point guard and he's a reluctant defender. If the plan is to have him play point guard and have Joe play shooting guard then I see the Hawks reverting back to the days when they were winning around 30 games. We tried the whole two guard playing point guard thing the first two years with Joe Johnson. It wasn't a good idea then it's not a good idea now. Crawford is supposedly insurance just in case they can't re-sign Mike Bibby, but it's not really an even exchange. Crawford is more interested in shooting than passing. It's just who he is. He's a higher priced Flip Murray. The only way for this to work would be for the Hawks to re-sign Bibby and let Crawford replace Flip. Yes he's going to be a very highly paid bench player, but that's the only way this has even the slightest chance at being successful.

3. Al Horford may never get to shoot again. The way they are going about constructing this team Al's points are going to have to come off of put backs. Oh, so nothing will change.

4. The Hawks drafted another combo guard in Jeff Teague. I don't know much about Teague. I'm not even going to pretend that I do, but from everything I've read he's just like Ben Gordon (not a bad thing). Again, this does not address the team's point guard needs. The chances of Teague getting any real playing time are slim to none anyway. See Law, Acie for examples on how Woody treats young players. If Woody wouldn't develop players when he had a couple of years left on his contract he's certainly not going to start when his job is actually on the line. In this case I can't blame him because if my job were on the line I probably wouldn't put my fate in the hands of a first year intern.

There are still a ton of questions to be answered about this team. They still have to figure out what to do with Marvin, Za Za, Flip and to a lesser degree Josh Childress. I don't know what this team will look like when training camp opens up, but right now consider me uninspired.